Sanita Puspure says ageist pundits should be ashamed

Sanita Puspure says that people asking about her age should be ashamed.

A world champion after two decades in the sport, Puspure points to Ekaterina Karsten, the 46-year-old Belarusian rowing legend, as the prime example of age being no barrier to competing at the highest level.

Cork County Mayor Cllr. Patrick Gerard Murphy talks to Sanita Puspure at an event to celebrate the homecoming of Irish Rowing Team at the National Rowing Centre. Pic. John Allen/Provision

When Karsten won the first of her 16 world championship medals in 1991, she was representing the Soviet Union. Two weeks ago, she competed in the women’s quad alongside rowers less than half her age.

“Last year, she was 45 and she was still beating me in some of the races so that age thing is really scratching my nerve,” said Puspure, who is ten years Karsten’s junior.

“If I’m still young enough to carry a child then I’m surely young enough to do the sport, aren’t I?

The people who brought it up should be ashamed of themselves in front of all the women who are doing something in their lives. That’s my message.

“You see all the middle-aged men and women doing Ironmans, it’s really demanding but they can still do it because they train to do it.

“We are training all year round to prepare our bodies for the strains of that 2k race at the end of the year. It’s not rocket science, it’s just science.

“I suppose I have really good genes that I am still able to train well and be fast in my mid-thirties.

“For rowing, it’s not a massive age. You can see so many people doing really well close to their 40s. The Estonian Juri Jaanson got his Olympic medal in the single when he was close to 40, and then he got another medal in the double [four years later].

“It’s normal, nothing extraordinary.”

Puspure, who demolished her rivals by six seconds, puts her career-best performance down to improvements in her training.

Plus, a sabbatical in her mid-20s —working two jobs, emigrating to Ireland, having children, living life — means there’s not too much mileage on the clock.

“The new programme gave me a new gear that I didn’t expect or have before.

I’ve been at this level for quite a while and I always thought I was training hard enough but I trained a little harder and it’s really rewarding that it actually worked.

“Looking after myself better, training, eating, sleeping, getting all those elements right makes the difference. The training and eating has been the most important part. If I don’t eat enough, I can’t train as much. It’s as simple as that. There’s no need to complicate it and look for something that’s not there.”

Unfortunately, her improvement in the boat hasn’t been matched by an improvement in her post-race ritual. After every race, Puspure vomits — a sign she’s emptied the tank over the 2000m.

“You could see the footage after I’d just finished and I was starting retching already. I’m glad they stopped filming!”

Puspure has had three coaches in the last three years — Don McLachlan, Sean Casey and now David McGowan — so she’ll be happy if she can enjoy a more stable winter this time around.

“This time last year we had quite a few troubles. We weren’t really sure where the future was going to go. There was a lot of changes, again.

“I didn’t take it well, at first, because there had been so many changes before.

Even if you look at the boys from Skibbereen, they had one coach through the whole of their career. That’s something they’ve been protected from.

“I just felt like I’d been thrown around a little bit. It took a while but with all the experience I’ve got from dealing with changes before, I decided I’m not going to let it affect me anymore... to take ownership of my own career and try not to let things on the outside affect my performance.

“I took different things from each one and that’s the benefit I see from it now.

“I think I’m done with that type of change now,” she laughs.

Puspure’s off-season is “short and sweet” as she heads straight back into training this morning. A fortnight off before an eight-month build up to the big races of 2019.

The Gold Cup in Philadelphia is her next stop as she builds towards another golden year.